From the 'Well of the Retching Cure' to a commuter village on the M9 motorway

Brigidine Convent

There has been female religious community in continuous existence in Paulstown since the 1830s. In this decade Rose Bolger of Acore and Peggy Carroll of Castlehill built a house and small shop on land owned by the Church and the bishop at the time, the famous Dr. James Doyle, permitted them to have The Blessed Sacrament in an upstairs oratory.[1]

For the next forty years those in the house sold good in the shop, made clothes, and looked after the sick and needy of the parish. They were also involved in teaching the girls of the village before and after the establishment of the girls’ national school in 1839.[2]

In 1845 the Congregation of St. Brigid received the approbation of Rome. The Mother House was located in Tullow, Co. Carlow.[3] In 1858 the Mother House founded a convent in Goresbridge with a local man, who had a niece in the Tullow congregation, financing it.[4] From there a branch house was established in Paulstown in 1874[5] or 1875.[6]

The current Brigidine Convent building is located on the Waterford road, between the Kilkenny/Dublin road junction and the Goresbridge /Waterford crossroads. The foundation stone for the building was laid on 8 September 1928.[7] An image of the convent from 1932 is located in this pdf document on page 6. It also contains an undated photograph of nuns from the Paulstown and Goresbridge communities.